If I wrote this post on Friday, it’d been all interwoven with fairly bad references to piano wire, depression, rainy days and woe-is-me’s. But alas, things change, don't they?

I don't write as much as I used to. I ride less. Every opportunity to is precious. The peloton that is life has just accelerated and I am pinned. Hoping I can stay with the group. But I did this to myself. I am in control.

But even with all that goes on these days, the focus on those precious times you can get out are so anticipated. I can not be one of those people who refuse to ride because they aren't as fast, or aren't as 'in form'. What the hell does that mean to a 40 year old husband and father anyways. Riding is my attachment to my youth. Me best memories.

So, I suit up. One leg at a time into the chamois. I throw my leg over my bike and rendezvous with my friends. Like kids. We ride and talk. Everyone is pinned with what life is throwing at us I learn. Everyone is trying to do the best they can for their families. It’s what makes the people I choose to surround myself with beautiful.

The group ride is church for our set. Therapy at its purest. Some have the need to go off the front and put pain to the rest of us. Others need to wheelie and table-top like little boys. We do these things and we all smile. We are alive and for the moment, the ‘real’ world is put in a compartment with its lid shut. No thoughts of deadlines. No thoughts of intervals. Just riding. Little reminders of why we commune in the woods.

We hit some intensely fun singletrack right by our houses this weekend. All from our garage doors. Deadly steeps up radically hard double track trail bringing us up to vistas that prove you really are in Colorado…and all this is available without getting into cars.

A short sneak peak at a slice of our day. The GoPro belies the steepness.

Commune with your friends as often as possible. For those that ‘do’, there will always be imbalance and the need to ensure not only you, but those that surround you are taken care of. It makes getting together for your penance that much more sweet.